Studying Kifu
by Kelun
Summary: Stories around Touya Kaoru, the decently normal child of abnormal Touya Akira, and her ridiculously bubbly best friend Shindou Chiharu.
1. Counting Stars

_Kifu #1: Introducing Touya Kaoru. She's fourteen._

_Summary: Touya Akira inadvertently meets Fujiwara no Sai. _

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_Won't be back until late. There should be left overs in the fridge._

Touya Kaoru paused as she shifted through the messages, blinking in surprise. She hadn't been aware that her father was even capable of using a phone, let alone being able to send a text message.

School had let out a couple minutes ago, and she walked along the sunlit sidewalk alone, duffel bag full of clothes from her locker that were in desperate need of some washing. Her father was probably at an Oteia match, it was a Wednesday after all, and higher dans played then. She wondered how one could play go for such inordinate amounts of time. Her lack on interest in the game had eventually subdued her father's, and the two had reached an understanding. While Kaoru could understand him, she didn't hold Go in the same light he did. To him, it was a way of life, to her, just another game.

Her phone rang.

_Catch you catch you catch me catch me matte—_

"Hello?" She answered breathlessly, near toppling over the couch to read her phone on the table.

"Hey!" Shindou Chiharu greeted with a chirp. "What are you doing tomorrow?"

"I'm not sure..." She began slowly. She had gymnastics on Friday, so she was free for most of the day. "Why?"

"Let's skip!"

"Skip school?" She echoed. "N—No...I couldn't do that I—

"Don't be such a wimp!" Chiharu whined. Such a bad influence. "I promise, it's for a good cause."

Kaoru was skeptical, but tentatively agreed. After all, no matter how good they were, what kind of adolescent didn't have the urge to leave school just about every moment spent in the building? "I guess I could go." She sighed, slowly.

"Great! See you then!"

The next day, Kaoru slipped into her school's button down blouse, wrapped the ribbon around her neck and tied the bow, pulled her knee socks up, and went to meet her father out in the kitchen. The two shared a remarkably calm breakfast, before she took off.

Chiharu was already down the street, for once, not wearing her usual striped knee socks in outrageous colors like hot pink and neon blue, but instead donned a—dress? The girl wore her blonde hair down, framing her face and bright green eyes. Her resemblance to Shindou Hikaru was as uncanny as her resemblance to Touya Akira.

"Should I have gotten changed?" She wondered aloud, as she leveled in step with the other girl.

Chiharu shook her head. "Your fine as you are! Come on, we'll miss the train!"

"Train?" She didn't think they would be going far.

The two of them boarded with the bustling passengers on their way to work, Chiharu humming in her usual exuberant manner, chatting animatedly to her about the cheerleading squad's latest competition, Chiharu was a flier, and the two of them had met for a mutual love for flips and stunts and a lack of interest in all things go—much to the dismay of their fathers.

Actually, it had begun nearly ten years ago, when the two were both six years old. Chiharu had been a regular at the Go Institute since four, and Kaoru knew from first had experience that the Institute, when one wasn't involved in Go, was probably the most boring place in existence. The day she had walked in, Chiharu had grabbed her by the waist and pulled her over into the wonderful world of vintage gameboy's and pokemon, much to the ire of their perpetual babysitter, Ogata Natsuko the thirteen-year old tyrant who ruled the lobby of the Go institute when the Professionals had their games.

"Where are we going, anyway?" She asked, head turned to watch the flush scenery, the countryside striking past them in blurs of red poppies and fields of rice.

Chiharu giggled. "You'll see!"

The train had long since dumped the majority of businessmen, and rattled quietly without its fullness. Chiharu and Kaoru were the only ones in the compartment.

She began to get a little worried when, thirty minutes later, they still hadn't departed. Still, country rolled by, the train slicing through tall grass and weaving over hills and lakes.

When they finally exited, Kaoru decided it was a spectacular time to voice her opinions. "I don't get why were here. Please don't tell me you're dragging me to some dreadful place to shop again...I remember the last time—

They passed a sign; Hiroshima.

"Err—" Praying to whatever god above them existed, she hoped they weren't going to another World War II museum, they'd visited one with their class a week or two ago, and she wanted to die from lack of amusing substance.

"We're not going to a museum, are we?" She asked quickly.

Ahead of her, Chiharu smiled. "Nope."

Curiously, she tagged along without complaint as Chiharu swerved around the crowded streets as if she had lived their all her life.

The two stopped by a flower shop, in which Chiharu purchased a mass amount of water lilies in bright fresco and white, handing her a couple of them as they carried on through the slew of people. She held them tightly, as they made it to a hill full of gravestones, and her curiosity began to grow even more.

They passed the steep hills full of gravestones, and eventually made it past them to the other side, where the hills were unmarred by blocks of stone, only rolling verdant hills, claret red wild flowers flowing in the wind. Kaoru watched the visible horizon, the bright blue sky meeting emerald, wondering why Chiharu had taken her so far away from the city. This time, she decided it was better to not ask, and simply follow direction.

The two past a shrine, where the old lady greeted Chiharu as if she had seen her many times before. Chiharu greeted her back, calling her Kaede oba-san.

Finally, the blond stopped abruptly, hair the color of lemon peels twisting in the wind. Kaoru was about to wonder why this part of the graveyard had a shrine dedicated to it, when she caught sight of the enormous headstone they had past. Torajiro Shuusaku. Kaoru's brows knitted. They were visiting the shrine of the Honninbo? Why?

Chiharu began to walk again, this time veering to the left, opposite of the clean cut stone, to where the dip of the hill began and a small, nearly unnoticed, stone was placed.

"Hello," She began very softly, as she knelt in front of a small lopsided stone, that looked as if it had been there for a long time. Kaoru tried to careen her head to look over Chiharu's shoulder, but could only make out a vague shape of the characters etched onto the stone.

Next to it, a fresh pot of chrysanthemums had already been offered.

Kaoru blinked, who's grave was this?

Chiharu leaned back, as she placed the flowers on the small concrete that elevated the stone.

Kaoru gasped.

Fujiwara Sai; it read.

"I'm sorry I haven't been here in a couple months," Chiharu began sheepishly, smile wide. "I would have gone with Dad on May fifth, but I got sick! So I came today instead. How have you been? I'm good I guess, my grades could be better. Apparently I take after my dad like that, mom's always on my case about my history grade. Are you playing a lot of Go, wherever you are? You'll be happy to know that I've been playing a bit too! Just some Shidou go for some kids on the Go Club. They're pitiful, and sure could use the help. I'm still cheerleading, yesterday Miki-chan almost dropped me though!—

The two of them stayed there for some time. Chiharu, elbows on her knees as she squatted level to the grave wind picking up her hair into a vibrant storm of sunshine yellow that glowed gold in the light. Kaoru, standing back a bit, dark hair tied up atop her head, but long enough that the strands reached her shoulders, straight cut bangs covering her bright blue eyes from view.

What was she supposed to say?

"By the way," Chiharu began again, more cheerfully this time. "I brought someone here to meet you! This is Touya Kaoru, you probably know her father. Him and dad are super close, and I hear they've got this rivalry going since like sixth grade! Imagine that! Anyway, I know dad's never brought him over here, so I figured you wouldn't mind meeting his daughter."

Chiharu looked back expectantly, and incarnadine spread over Kaoru's cheeks.

"Well I—" Unsure of what to say, she stopped abruptly. Her lashes lowered over her eyes, creating long spiky shadows over freckles on her cheeks. "I've always heard about you." She decided upon, unsure of what else to begin with. "Sometimes from my dad, and sometimes from my grandfather. He really wants to play you again, and sometimes he'll stay up real late just sitting in front of the goban, waiting for you to make your move. My dad, too. He'll recreate games he's played with you."

She gulped, feeling like a pressure had surrounded her. "I'm glad to have finally met you." She said, with such honesty in shook her voice.

Chiharu grinned.

That night at dinner, her father came home after teaching at the salon. He looked pretty tired out, but he still stayed up for their meal together. Usually, the two tried to be home at the same time to at least have some sort of family time.

"So I met someone really important today." She began tentatively, noting how her father's stormy mood increased ten fold once she said that.

"Oh?" There was a deceptive sort of calm to him as he picked his rice. "Is that why I got a call from school in the middle of my league match telling me you weren't there?"

"E—eh..." She blushed, and felt that she wouldn't see her computer for a few months. "Well I..."

Her father sighed, knowing her daughter was more like him then he gave her credit. She probably had a reasonable excuse. "I hope you had a good reason."

"I did!" Kaoru interrupted hotly. "Like I said, I met someone today. I think you'd want to meet him to."

Touya didn't seem to catch her drift, eyes narrowing. If this was some sort of ploy to get him to meet her current boyfriend, he hoped she'd find a better way to do it next time. "And what is this person's name, then?"

"Sai." His noodles dropped from his chopsticks. "His name was Fujiwara Sai."

"Sai?" The man began slowly, lost in the memories that surfaced with the name.

Kaoru nodded. "Chiharu brought me to his grave." Touya's eyes softened. "It was his birthday today."

"And how was it?"

Kaoru shrugged. "I didn't know what to make of it, really." She began waveringly. "But I'm glad I went."

Touya smiled briefly, unable to calm the slight jealousy that coiled his stomach, fully knowing Shindou would probably never take him to that place.

"I put flowers," His daughter smiled at him. "For both of us."

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_Huh._


	2. Memory

_Kifu #2: Introducing Shindou Chiharu. In this chapter, she is six years old. The song is from the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack, Yoko Kanno's Memory.

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The spring morning came all too quickly, and Kaoru clasped her father's hand with a grip like steel, enough for the young pro to wince and soothingly try to tug his playing hand out of her grasp.

She was young then, six or so, and had never strayed too far from the house for anything aside from school, and her mother's house. Places like the Go Institute seemed far away and scary, something that made her heart tremble in fear and clasp her hands to her father's even tighter. She had tried to stay in the car, but her father had eventually wrestled her out with some ounce of exasperation.

"It looks scary." She commented in her sweet, childish voice. The tall building loomed before them, and the 7-dan sighed.

"It's not as bad as it looks." He brushed a long wisp of dark hair out of her bright blue eyes. They blinked up at him with fear, and he wondered why she was so scared. "Natsuko-chan is here, do you remember her?"

Natsuko was Kaoru's on again, off again baby-sitter, who came over perpetually whenever the young pro had to take a leave. The two didn't seem to overly fond of each other, Natsuko being a typical boy loving, vapid blond who was more into the latest fashion style then go. Sometimes he wondered how such a girl could be born from Ogata, resident go-playing, womanizing hermit. But then, how did he end up never married, twenty-six, with a six-year old daughter? And how did Shindou end up married with two kids, becoming the responsible family man? The wonders of growing up...

He picked her up when he realized the young child wasn't budging from her spot staring at the door, and cradled her into the institute lobby.

Immediately he recognized Shindou, with his blonde fringe talking to Kurata near the steps. He also noticed what seemed to be a set up of children. Natsuko, Sai, and Chiharu had all plopped into the far corner by the window, seated at a long table and looking as if they were so used to being here that it didn't bother them.

"Shindou." Akira called, noting how his rival faced him with utter relief.

"Touya!" He walked over, pleased at an excuse to move away from Kurata and his ego. "Is that little Kaoru-chan?" He bent down until he was eye level with the girl cradled to his chest, who sent him a petulant glare that came out more cute then angry, with her cheeks flushed and her hair tied up in a mass amount of ribbons.

As Touya watched Shindou coax words out of his usually silent daughter, he mused that Shindou was surprisingly good with kids, considering his lack of tact when he was a teenager.

"—is my daughter Chiharu. She's your age!"Shindou was saying with a smile, before he turned to the little brunette playing on a gameboy. "Chiharu, why don't you say hello?"

The little girl looked up, immediately hopping off of her chair and bouncing over to where the three of them were making a spectacle in the middle of the lobby. She tilted her head upwards the moment Kaoru tilted hers downwards, the two of them locked in some sort of undercurrent of unknowable wisdom only six year old girls could understand.

Touya eased his little girl down, hoping that she wouldn't bolt for the door. She didn't, and instead stared curiously at the strange, yet familiar creature in front of her with straight cut bangs and auburn hair down to her shoulders. Chiharu was wearing a pink sweatshirt with a mouse on the front, jean shorts over striped stockings that tucked into her pink rain boots. In contrast, Kaoru had her hair done up in extravagant curls that were pulled up with pink ribbon, standing in a dress that was decorated with frills and bows and a pluming skirt with ruffles all the way down to her knees, wearing a pair of sparkling red dorothy shoes. Her mother was the one who bought all the clothes, and Kaoru never spent a day without wearing at least one dress. Akira didn't complain, because he hadn't the slightest idea how to shop for a six year old girl, much less for himself.

"Come on!" The young Shindou ordered. "Play pokemon with me!"

She tugged Kaoru's hand, and lead her past Natsuko, who had her headphones in her ears as she tilted her chair back, scrawling an essay on the book in her lap., backpack haphazardly opened at the foot of her chair and papers sprawled out. Sai was Shindou's eight year old son, named after the elusive netgo player that Hikaru was _still _yet to completely disclose the relationship he had with the unknown character. He was seated next to Natsuko, looking deep in thought over his homework.

Kaoru followed curiously, as Chiharu leaped onto the over-sized chair, and swung her legs idly as she began the game anew. "This is my pokemon, he's a Charmander. He's super, super cool, but I don't like to use him because my Arcanine is a lot better. And this is my Dragonair, he evolves into Dragonite but I don't let him because he's prettier as a Dragonair. And this one's Vaporeon, she's my favorite because she looks like a kitty cat—

Touya sighed in relief when Kaoru seemed pacified this, and for once since the morning, began to let his mind think solely of go.

"They're killer, huh?" Shindou seemed to read his mind, rubbing the back of his head. "Once upon a time, it was go, go, go, first-person shooter games, and more go. I had a one room apartment that had the coolest shit in the world and another girl every other day of the week." He eyed the ring on his finger with fondness. "Look at me now..."

"Don't complain." Touya rolled his eyes as they made their way into the elevator. "You know you're happy."

Hikaru grinned. "Yeah, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't."

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_huh._


	3. Transparence

Ogata Natsuko hitched her large duffel bag over her shoulder, pulling her cell phone out of her spandex and checking her messages. No new ones. She looked around the dreary world around her, awash in gray undertones, the lugubrious sky looked ready to spit out torrents of rain strong enough to whip her hair.

She stood at the corner of her school, peering out to the road beyond the parking lot in hopes of seeing her father's sleek sports car pulling into the school's district. No such luck. He was probably still at his game. If there was one thing she hated more than the fact that her father played go in general, it was that the games never had a set time. Sometimes they ended early, and sometimes ridiculously late. She understood the mechanics of the game and its courtesies, and knew that he was probably caught up in the after game match for his third title.

As she watched the clouds maunder about above her, she wondered if he won or not.

_Won't that be great,_ she thought sarcastically,_ more go nerds to come up and talk to me._

The cheerleading competition was over, and she was stuck in the icy fall weather in her short skirt that left nothing to the imagination, and the tight cheerleading shirt with the school's logo across it. Her shoes were a bit too large for her feet, and were mangled and beat up from years of wearing them.

Finally, Natsuko decided that her father was going to be drastically late, and she might as well find somewhere warm to sit and pull out Daisuke's sweatshirt that he'd given to her at the competition. She'd been fooling around with him for a couple weeks now, but, like her father, never seemed to hold interest for very long. It was a curse, she groused, as she sat on the bench behind her and cuddled the over-sized sweatshirt in her hands, she could never make it past four months. Natsuko supposed that she couldn't really blame her father for divorcing her mother, when she knew the feeling of cooling emotions all too well herself.

She really was her father's daughter.

"Hey,"

She looked up then, trying to peer through the shifting mist. But there was nothing out there. Had she imagined that? Or was that part of the 3oh!3 song she was listening to?

"Ogata Natsuko, right?"

She whirled around then, meeting the gaze of a dark haired boy with intense eyes. He had the door open into the school, sending the heat to course out from the interior. He had her school's uniform on, but she'd never seen him before. Maybe he was in a lower year? No, he looked older, so maybe he was from the secondary school next door. The junior high and the senior high shared the same plot of land, but the senior high schoolers hardly ever crossed the stretch of grass and parking lot to the opposite end.

"That's me." She answered questioningly, keeping her voice void of any emotion.

"I'm Kuwabara." The boy grinned, looking a bit mischievous with his fox-like visage. "Kuwabara Kazuki."

She smiled coyly. Now she had a name to fit the cute boy in front of her. She had to admit, he certainly wasn't bad looking. Daisuke sure didn't hold a candle to his askew dark hair and artless quality. Natsuko had to admit that when it came to choosing boys she had shallow interests in mind. Nice looks, nice grades, nice smile, sporty, good at athletics, varsity. And from the looks of this boy, he seemed to check off everything on her list.

"It's nice to meet you," She pulled out a can of soda from her bag. "But I don't think I've ever seen you around before..."

"I'm a third-year at the senior high," He motioned to the building against the horizon that looked small in its place in the distance. "My younger brother goes here, so I was picking him up." He gave a sweep of the near deserted looking exterior, to which Natsuko assumed the interior matched. He shrugged. "I guess he got a ride himself."

"From your parents?" Natsuko mused, which was probably the most typical of explanations. The boy was eighteen, and from the lanyard sticking out of his pockets, drove his own car.

The boy scratched the back of his head. "Nah, my parents are in the Bahamas right now. We're staying with my grandfather, and well, he's got a bit of a backwards schedule."

Natsuko thought of her own father, who seemed to always be home when she least wanted him to and was always away when she needed him. Like, persay, right now.

"I know what you mean." She nodded empathetically.

"Anyway, so I was wondering if you needed a ride." He looked a bit sheepish as he elaborated. "I figure since you look pretty cold you've been out here for a while."

She smiled shyly at him, brushing out the sunny wisps of hair escaping from the ponytail atop her head and tucking them behind her ear. "That'd be really great."

He brightened. "Really?" Probably at the thought of having a cute cheerleader riding in his car.

"My dad," She began, sipping her drink and following him to the car. "Is always really late to pick me up or drop me off. Pretty hard to count on."

She sunk into the plush leather of the boy's car. It had a nice interior, and she was extremely pleased to see a massive hockey bag with sticks poking out in the back. A hockey player. She grinned, as he revved the engine, and pulled out of the parking lot in one fell swoop.

"So why does he have such a strange schedule?" Kazuki asked, although he paid more attention to the road than to her, but she didn't mind.

Natsuko flushed and looked out the window. She didn't like telling her friends—much less, a cute boy who had given her a ride—what her father does. "Err—he's probably at a match right now." She hoped he would leave it at that, and figure that her father was a soccer player or something like that.

No such luck.

"Really? What match?" He swerved into the far left lane, and pitched the car into fourth gear. "This exit?"

She paused. This _was_ the right exit for her house, but her father wouldn't be there, and would probably be angry if she explained that she got a ride from some boy she didn't know. "No..." She gave a sigh. "Keep going straight." To the Go Institute it was. So much for not telling him.

She took a breath. "My dad's a go player."

"I know." Not even a pause.

"Yeah, its so boring I don't know how he stands it. He always gets mad that even his own daughter doesn't get the game. I think he was hoping for a son like Touya Akira to worship go religiously—" She paused then, and whirled around to look at him. "Wait. You knew?"

He nodded, looking amused. "Of course. Ogata Juudan."

"If you knew that," She began slowly. "Then why did you ask what match?"

Kazuki gave her a strange look, as if she should know this already. "Well, isn't he in the Honninbo league right now? And I know he's challenging for the Tengen Title some time this week, I was pretty sure it was today. That's probably why he was so late to pick you up..."

"You follow go?" She asked curiously.

He smiled then, taking his eyes off the road for a moment to watch her bewildered face. She sure was pretty, with beautiful long blonde hair tied up with a sparkling bow at the top of her head, bangs pulled behind her ear.

"No, not so much following as playing." He said with mirth, when he watched the surprise light up on her face.

"Eh?" She blinked large brown eyes at him. "You play?"

"Taking the pro exam this year!" Kazuki smiled, running a hand through tousled hair as he slowed to a stop for the light.

"Oh." Subdued, she didn't know what else to say. She'd never imagined that there were young go players, let alone, _cute_ young go players. "So what got you into it?" She asked with genuine interest.

He shrugged nonchalantly. "My grandfather I guess. I always thought it was cool, the flow of the stones, defending territory—" He stopped then with a chuckle. "I probably sound like a nerd."

She shook her head. Actually, "Not at all." She insisted, and suddenly wondered the mechanics of that. All her life, she had spent babysitting Kaoru and Chiharu at the go institute, sick of the place and its uninteresting walls, uninteresting game, uninteresting life. She went out of her way to reject go whenever her father brought it up, to the point that he didn't talk about it unless it was to inform her he was going to be somewhere. Go had always been boring and nerdy, like the kids who went up and asked her to join the school team. She supposed she was good, and probably would be one of the best if she hadn't dropped it many years ago.

Perhaps, she mused, watching Kazuki's tousled hair in the wan, wintry light of the street lamps passing by them, her idea of what was "nerdy" and what wasn't was a bit shallow.

"Here we are!" He smiled then, and she abruptly broke out of her musings, to see the large lettering board of the go institute, which held all the schedules. She scanned them, and found the one she was looking for. Tengen title match.

"The Go Institute?"

"I figured that's where you wanted to go." He locked his car as the two made their way to the entrance in the brisk air. "I mean, your dad's still in there discussing the match. Probably will be for a while."

She sighed then. That meant staying here longer then she wanted to. Again.

Kazuki caught her upset visage out of the corner of her eye, and wrapped his arm around her to give her a comforting pat. Natsuko blushed. "Hey, it's not gonna be that boring...I think you'd actually understand it."

"I don't think so." She began slowly, if not adamantly. "I'd rather just wait out here."

He frowned, looking worried. "Are you sure?"

"Positive." The thought of sitting on her knees watching the recreation of a game and being altogether bored didn't sound like a good way to spend her evening. She'd probably end up listening to her iPod in a corner somewhere with a melon juice, texting her friends.

"Well, alright." He waved goodbye, as he got onto the elevator. "If you change you mind," He began as the elevator doors started to slide. "It's on the sixth floor!"

She waved. "Alright, thanks!" Fat chance of that happening.

As the doors closed, she wandered about, looking for a vending machine. She found one in one of the nondescript hallways that lead out of the lobby shop. She wrestled change out of the tightness of her spandex—curse the lack of pockets in cheerleading outfits!—and picked out a can of melon juice.

As she waited for the slow machine to process her order, she heard the sound of the TV behind her.

"_And the Juudan makes an effective pincer right here, cutting of Kurata's hand and slicing his territory in half—_

"_Amazing if I do say so myself. What a match! Wouldn't you agree, Tashikawa-san? And look here to this kosumi, I'm surprised to have even thought of that..."_

At the commentators voices she looked up, noticing the lounge area with the TV mounted to the wall showing the Tengen match. She sat down and made herself comfortable, ignoring the buzzing in her hand from a text message, and instead, sipped her drink and watched the game play out.

Maybe it wasn't that much of a fat chance after all.


	4. Books and Bossa

_Books and Bossa. Theme #4: Shindou Sai. I skip around a lot. Unless I say otherwise, the normal timeline is Chiharu and Kaoru are fourteen, making Sai sixteen, and Natsuko seventeen, and Kazuki…twenty?

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Fujiwara Sai, his father had explained to him before, was a man that was entirely overwhelmed in Go, an enigmatic creature that only existed to play the illustrious board game.

That's what Hikaru had told him, anyway, back when he still wanted to hear bedtime stories, he and his sister peeking their heads out of the covers as their father spun stories about whatever suited their fancy. Sai had asked him about his namesake once, and Hikaru had this delighted grin as he recalled the tale of Fujiwara Sai, a young man of the court in the Heian period, whose only wish was to play Go. Back then, Sai really believed that he was named after this man who lived hundreds of years ago, who reincarnated into the best Go player alive, and eventually wandered the plains until he found his father.

As Sai grew older, he realized that, more then likely, that bedtime story was a metaphor of sorts, or a euphemism for something else. He never questioned why his father spun the story like he did, believing it was the result of his father's overactive imagination.

"Sai, come here for a sec."

The boy broke out of his musings, as he moved over to where Touya Kaoru was shifting through the book store.

He'd met the dark-haired girl when he was eight, and never really took interest in her, seeing as though Chiharu usually had her claws sunk into the girl every other moment of the day. But he'd admit that he'd much rather spend time with Kaoru then any of the other girls Chiharu was friends with—the airy, popinjay kind of girls with exiguous amounts of clothes and rapacious smiles—because at least she could understand the complexities of go, and take them for what they were.

"Which match is this?"

He looked up, to where the girl was pointing to the television screen.

His father was on, and an old man he didn't recognize.

"Kisei league." Sai responded, before taking some of the books from her hands. She had about seven, all the size of tomes, and looked quite precociously balanced on her thin arms.

"Thanks." She smiled at him sheepishly and he only nodded. Kaoru moved closer to the register, and he followed suit. "Anyway, how's the exams?"

"Easy." He scoffed.

She smirked at him over her shoulder, eyes bright and blue. "Cocky, aren't you?"

"I mean, no one there is of any challenge." He shrugged. "Except for Kazuki. We're the only two that are certain to pass."

"Kazuki…" Kaoru echoed softly, a thoughtful look on her face. "Kuwabara, Kazuki?"

"Yeah, that's him." Shindou blinked, as if he was surprised that she even remembered him. Sai and Kazuki were good friends, mainly because they shared the same interests. Go, soccer, video games. Normal stuff. "How do you know him?"

"Isn't he," She began slowly, almost deliberately, as she set the books down on the counter. "Natsuko-chan's boyfriend?"

"Maybe," The boy began absentmindedly, helping her with the books, before; "_what?" _

Kaoru paused and looked back at him. "You didn't know?" She asked, and made him feel infinitely more stupid and out of the loop then usual.

"Why would I know something like that?" He scowled lazily. "They're going out? Like… dating?"

"Yes, like dating." Kaoru rolled her eyes. "You wouldn't know anything about it, now would you?"

"Hey." He blinked, then frowned as he caught the joke. _"Hey."_

She giggled. "I'm kidding!"

He shrugged it off though. "Wait, so when did they start, like, dating? I mean, does Ogata-sensei know about this?" The thought brought forth a terrifying image of Ogata's face when he found out.

As she paid, Kaoru skewered him with a flat look. "What do you think?"

"Okay, no." He frowned then. "Does Kuwabara-sensei?"

"I don't think he cares, really." The young Touya grabbed her bag and beckoned him to follow her out into the busy street. Cars were crawling in the never ending traffic, and Kaoru was already heading down the street. Shindou plodded sullenly beside her. "It's Kuwabara-sensei, he's crazy."

"It's just strange to think about." Shindou shriveled his nose. "Natsuko's like… really mean. She's bossy and angry all the time and for god's sake, she looks like Ogata-sensei as a girl. And Kazuki's just… laid back and cool with everything."

As he thought about it longer, he whispered. "I can't help but feel bad for him."

Touya nodded wordlessly, pulling into a café.

* * *

Ogata Natsuko, currently seventeen, relatively short, blonde (naturally, mind you, much unlike Chiharu, who regularly dyed her hair outrageous colors) perpetually annoyed, spiteful, bossy, with a legendary left hook.

The girl walked into her house and was met with eerie silence. The two bedroom apartment was nothing special, and cozy to the point of squished. It hadn't always been like that. When she was younger, she loved being so close to her father. At this point, she was dying to get away from him. If anyone asked for her opinion on the Juudan, her immediate response would be "He's annoying, he get's up way too early, and smokes a lot." But inwardly, she's become rather fond of him. Even if she'd never say it aloud.

Today was not one of those days.

She toed off her trainers at the entrance, and made a left into her room, dropped her bag, and blinked sleepily before realizing she was hungry.

Judging from the pair of dress shoes at the door, her father was around here somewhere.

But she was more interested in the food which lurked in the inner depths of the fridge, past the beer, to the right of the eggs. She remembered the bento she'd made for tomorrow, and decided today would be a better opportunity to indulge in its splendor.

"How was school?" Asked the Juudan, as he lurked from behind the computer.

"Fine." She answered tonelessly, walking past the door to the study with quick, hurried strides.

She caught a glimpse of the unnatural light from the fish tank—what kind of middle aged man kept tropical fish, anyway?—when something caught her eye.

Her father was lounging in his chair, studying a neon green sticky note which resembled the ones she carried in her school bag, and looked awfully familiar—

"What are you doing with that?" She cried, and made a leap to snatch it out of his amused hands.

Expecting this, Ogata pulled it out of her reach, a sly smirk on his face.

"What's this?"

Her face flushed as he turned his head, scowling as he took great pleasure in reading aloud: "My parents cut off my phone. Guess we've been talking to much. Here's my grandfather's home phone." And then, with great relish, he mimicked in his most girliest voice. "_Call Me. Love, Kazuki."_

"_Dad._" She bemoaned aloud, head sinking onto the cool wood of the desk in utter embarrassment. "_Come on_."

"So who is this Kazuki?" Ogata pondered as he eyed the note. "A boyfriend, perhaps?"

After a beat of silence, a squeaked, "Maybe." Was his reply.

An evil grin. "And when can I meet this, Kazuki?"

Another silence.

"Never."

"That's not very polite of you." He sniffed, clearly enjoying watching his daughter's mortification. It wasn't every day she got so flustered over something.

She said nothing, before making another grab for the note. It was to no avail.

While she struggled for the paper, he took his other hand and dialed the number. When Natsuko heard the dial tone, she near died.

"You wouldn't!" She cried, this time grabbing for the phone.

"I wouldn't?" He echoed with relish. "How long have you known me again?"

On the other line, the phone was picked up. Ogata grinned, and Natsuko wanted the floor to swallow her whole, where she could then melt down into the earth and swim among the dinosaur bones. Her father opened his mouth, and she cringed, remembering the last episode of father vs. boyfriend, involving a timid young boy opening the front door to stare in horror at the monstrous looking man, who glared, and slammed the door. Or the other time when Sousuke-kun from Class B came over for dinner, and her dad did nothing but stare silently, until Sousuke politely excused himself to the bathroom (and never came back).

There was a reason that Natsuko never brought boys home.

"Hello?"

"Do I know you?" Came the blunt reply.

Ogata paused. This 'Kazuki' kind of sounded like an old man, and awfully familiar. He supressed the shiver. "No, I'm calling for my daughter—

"No—I'm sure I do." The boy interrupted. "Familiar…very familiar…"

Ogata scowled before continuing. "I'm calling for my daughter, Ogata—

"_Ogata!_"

The Juudan pulled the receiver away from his ear at the scream.

"Yes," He began again irately. "Ogata Natsuko."

"Oh, this is wonderful! Fantastic!" Another chuckle. "Who knew my Kazuki—young chap—was dating Ogata Natsuko! No wonder you sound so familiar! It's nice to hear from you Seiji! How'd you get this number, eh?"

"E—Excuse me?"

"What, don't remember this old man? To think what young love does these days, ho, ho, ho, ho…"

Natsuko watched with morbid fascination as her father's face lost its pallor, turning to a ghastly shade of white.

"No, you can't be…" And then, "_Kuwabara Honnibou!"_

More cackling from the other line, and Natsuko clasped her mouth with both hands to stop from dissolving into laughter.

"I'm not the Honninbou anymore, Seiji!"

Natsuko fell to the floor in dry heaves. Her father was limp in the chair.

"Why don't you come over tomorrow? Have dinner with us? It's only natural, you know, meeting the family—but we won't have to, will we old friend? I've known you since you were still Koyo's little genius!"

Seeing as those her father was comatose, Natsuko picked up the phone.

"Oh, Kuwabara-san, we'd _love_ to." Her eyes gleamed perniciously as her father's face contorted into horror. "It sounds like so much fun. How does eight o'clock sound?"

"Sounds excellent! I'll see you then!"

She shut the phone with a beastly smile, placed it back into her father's twitching palm, and walked out the study.

Before she crossed the threshold, she stopped.

"Just to let you know," The saccharine was edible off of her words. "I really like this one, daddy! I think we'll even get married and have lots of kids! Won't that be wonderful? You and Kuwabara-san will be almost related!"


	5. Orenji

_Orange-Rie Kumigaya from ToraDora!.Normal Ages: Kaoru Chiharu 14, Sai 16, Natsuko 17, Kazuki 20_

_

* * *

_

"It's cold in here!" Chiharu whined from the door, shifting her weight anxiously between her feet. The gymnasium was always an abomination of frozen air, in all seasons, and it sucked even more in the cold winter months. She had a sweatshirt on, but it hardly helped. "Can you hurry up?"

"Could you be a little patient?" Came the snarky reply.

The young dark-haired girl was leaning over her left leg, nose pressing into her knee, sprawled on the floor near the entrance to the gym. Her best friend, the blonde with her hands on her hips, looked positively miffed, but said nothing to the rebuke.

Touya Kaoru was pulling sweats on, plucking ear buds out of her ear. She took her hair out if its pony tail before they entered the varying temperatures of the school, walking along side her friend, who didn't seem to be able to sit still. As usual, Chiharu was an enigma of pure energy, bouncing on her toes. Her hair was done up in pigtails, and her brother's hockey sweatshirt seemed a dozen sizes to big for her. Kaoru made no comment, however. Chiharu was no doubt trying out another fahsion genre. Cute younger sisters, maybe? She'd been into hipsters and indie for a couple years now, and Kaoru was almost a little glad for the change from big belts and massive sunglasses, mini dresses and hippie headbands.

"So I've got some pretty bad news." The blonde began conversationally, as they twisted through hallways where people mingled.

Chiharu was a known truth-stretcher, so Kaoru only listened with half an ear, the other part of her examining the Go Club signs posted on the tiled hallways. A warped part of her almost stretched to them, while another part was greatly perturbed by the sudden sick fascination. "Go on," She said aloud absentmindedly.

The blonde in pigtails-her hair curled unnaturally and spinning around her face-frowned and waved her hands. "This weekend, you know, the weekend we had planned out, like, _years _in an advance for Harujuku? Remember?"

Indulging in fashion wasn't her thing, so no, she didn't, but she nodded anyway.

"Well, apparently its also the Autumn Leaves Tournament." Chiharu released her anger with a quick jab of her fist to the air. It almost accidentally hit a walking boy in the face. "The one where-

"I know of it, yes." She interrupted bitingly. "The annual one where we all go to that one hotel for four days and pretty much do nothing while our parents play go. Yes, Chiharu, its on the same weekend every year."

Her cheeks puffed. "B-But it's still not fair! I have our whole weekend planned out! It's not everyday we have four days to do what we like!"

Touya only rolled her eyes, and exited the building. For autumn, the weather was a pleasant equilibrium between scathing hot and unpredictable frost. Chihiaru bounded out of the building, leaping over a couple puddles and finding her way to the curb, where the parking lot was mostly deserted. Kaoru followed, more subdued, and more concerned with her sudden interest in a subject that had hardly every fascinated her before. Go, was not just a game for her-and she supposed, her entirely family at that-it was an essential way of life that, even if she didn't play it, she could understand at a depth most people couldn't. Her friends from school and gymnastics thought it was crazy. A crazy occupation, considering their office-box bound parents with their typical and _predictable _work schedules. Her father was almost always playing Go, s_omewhere_, and if he wasn't playing Go he was reading about Go, or talking about Go, or watching Go. To most people, it would seem sort of ridiculous to be so intrigued by the same thing everyday.

Hah, not so.

One could be intrigued by the same thing, everyday, for a _lfetime._

Just look at her grandfather.

"N-Natsuko-chan?" Chiharu gaped, as if it was the unsacred holy name of the devil.

A sleek red Mazda pulled into the drive. It was old, probably a classic now, but still retained its prior beauty from the days that Chiharu's father used to tell her horror stories about Ogata Juudan and his sports car. Her dad said Ogata was fucking crazy, and she'd do well to stay away from him at any given point in her life. She wondered if that same warning applied to the Juudan's spiteful, bitchy daughter. She supposed it really did, but Hikaru was too enamored by the fact that there was a girl who understood his backwards Go-induced schedule and would still babysit his tyrant kids regardless, and therefore overlooked the fact that her genetics were precariously close to a certain former nightmare of his.

Aside from the fact that Chiharu had known Natsuko since before she was five didn't move the fact that Natsuko was scary.

"What are you doing here?" The young Shindou backed away slowly, before leaping behind Kaoru.

Natsuko rolled her eyes, and fluffed out her smooth blonde hair, looking appreciatively at the rear view mirror, where she was no doubt checking herself out. Chiharu scowled, Kaoru blinked. The older blonde tilted down her sunglasses. "I'm picking you up." The 'duh' was almost audible in her words.

"For what?" Kaoru asked.

"The Tournament, of course." Ogata deadpanned. She shifted out of park. "Are you coming in, or not? We have to stop by your houses and get your stuff, I suppose."

Chiharu uneasily got into the sports car, slinking into the back and glowering like a cornered cat. Kaoru followed the motion with less dramatic effect, and pulled the door shut after her. "We're going with you?"

* * *

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End file.
